Abstract: Fruits of precocious red‘Taishan Zaoxia’and green‘Liaofu’apple cultivars demand for the same growth period before ripening were investigated. The results indicated that：①The content of anthocyanin and the activities of PAL，CHI and UFGT in‘Taishan Zaoxia’were higher than those in ‘Liaofu’（P < 0.05）. ②The release of ethylene in both cultivars peaked before harvesting and the rapid accumulation of anthocyanin. The ethylene release of the fruit reduced after the application of 1-MCP，and followed by the significant decrease of the anthocyanin release；The ethylene promoted and affected the accumulation of anthocyanin at the ripening stage of precocious apples. ③The content of anthocyanin was positively correlated with the activities of UFGT in‘Taishan Zaoxia’during fruits ripening. The production of ethylene is closely related to the synthesis of anthocyanin by mediating the activity of UFGT.

Key words: apple, precocious, anthocyanin, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, chalcone isomerase, glycosyltransferase